A man has pleaded not guilty to raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton while another man has denied strangling her, in a case that prompted anti-asylum protests in the town.

Ahmad Mulakhil and Mohammad Kabir, both 23, are accused of abducting and assaulting the child in the Warwickshire town on 22 July. The defendants denied nine charges between them at a plea hearing at Warwick crown court on Thursday.

Mulakhil, of no fixed abode, denied abducting a child, three counts of rape of a child under 13, and two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13. Kabir, also of no fixed abode, pleaded not guilty to attempting to take a child, aiding and abetting rape of a child under 13, and intentional strangulation of the girl.

A further court hearing is scheduled for 21 November and a trial date was set by the judge for 26 January next year and is expected to last five days. Judge Montgomery KC remanded the pair in custody.

The case had been seized upon by the far right after a row erupted when the Reform UK council leader George Finch accused the police of a “cover-up” over the men’s immigration status. In response, the Warwickshire police chief constable, Alex Franklin-Smith, wrote an open letter stating that police were following “national guidance”.

This guidance was subsequently changed by the College of Policing, with new advice encouraging forces to release the race and nationality of those charged in high-profile cases, after support from home secretary, Yvette Cooper.

A far-right rally was held in Nuneaton during an anti-immigration protest, in which attenders wore clothing bearing Nazi imagery and speakers told a crowd the “far right must unite”.

During the short hearing on Thursday, in which there was no mention of the men’s nationalities or immigration status, Mulakhil listened through a Farsi interpreter, while Kabir followed proceedings through a Pashto interpreter.